Reality is a bitch, that’s why I like mine in small doses and preferably heavily diluted. This is particularly true of a reality that is either embarrassing or indefensible and especially when that reality is in some way my own creation. Take, for example, some of my undeniably embarrassing and inexcusable behaviour. Like most South […]
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Posted inGeneral
Do you get me?
Protest on the part of the citizens of a country is a way of making their displeasure or grievances known to governing authorities, whether these have been elected or occupy their positions by inheritance, as it were, in the case of royalty. In the case of despots abusing their governing positions beyond the level of […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The African youth should fulfil their mission
One of the founding fathers of the African National Congress, Pixley ka Seme, stood at Columbia University, in 1906, to deliver his speech: “the Regeneration of Africa”. He said: “The brighter day is rising upon Africa…Yes the regeneration of Africa belongs to this new and powerful period. The African people…possess a common fundamental sentiment which […]
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The Afrikaner as villain
By Anton I Botha I was mildly amused the other day when my brother introduced me to the PC game Far Cry 2 which has villains that speak Afrikaans. While trekking through the African savannah, players are confronted with multiple ‘baddies’ that the hero (American of course) has to take out through any means necessary. […]
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Who wants to hire the celeb?
By Benedict Matjiu After months of worn-out adverts punting soccer deals, owners of companies doing own voice-overs and endless tweets of self-promotion, I find myself asking has “underground” become the new above-the-line? Noah (CEO of Cell C), Eugene Khoza (Mr Nedbank), Kagiso Lediga (CEO of Nando’s). The big names in South African comedy are really […]
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Social media no longer on business fringe
By Dominique Pienaar Social networks, blogs and virtual worlds are no longer on the fringe — they are very real factors that can influence the perception of companies large and small. Customers, partners and competitors are openly and frankly engaged in these channels, and these discussions are occurring completely outside the control of the companies […]
Posted inNews/Politics
We have become cowards
Something in the character of South Africans is dying. Something in many of us has died and it is called courage. We have become cowards. I guess I should be speaking for myself since I have no mandate to speak for everybody, whoever that is but I insist on using the royal “we” and I […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Christians, gays equally hypocritical
By Cynthia Ayeza Mutabaazi A gay activist was recently murdered in Uganda, my home country. A bit of hell broke loose in the international community and two weeks or so later, life goes on. This is our sad reality. I highly doubt that he was murdered because he was gay. But I do not have […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The United States of Africa: A dream reborn
The eventual ousting of Moammar Gadaffi, counter-intuitively, has the potential to bring the African continent one step closer to the tyrannical despot’s long pursued pet project of a United States of Africa. In stark contrast to the personal monopoly over power illegitimately accrued by Gadaffi and his cohort of African heads of government, a federation […]
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Postmodernism and legal education
In 1997 a man by the name of Dennis Arrow published an assemblage of more than 200 pages of text in the Michigan Law Review under the title “Pomobabble: Postmodern Newspeak and Constitutional ‘Meaning’ for the Uninitiated”. Although the text claimed to be defining postmodernism and legal postmodernist jargon, it did everything but that. Instead, […]
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Budget speech: Will govt back its promises?
By Jan Hofmeyr Since it assumed office, the Zuma administration has been frequently faulted for not being able to forge a coherent vision for this country. Arguably the president’s recent State of the Nation address has been perceived by some to not alter this view. Workmanlike it was, and touching on the right issues it […]
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Doing evil to do good
I have just finished reading Robert McNamara’s In Retrospect, which seeks to provide answers to why the “best and brightest”, who, after skilfully navigating the Cuban Missile Crisis, led the US into the tragic Vietnam War. President Barack Obama’s team, apparently, diligently studied this period of history when they drew up the new administration’s Afghanistan […]